Cold
by nickie.nikolova
Summary: "They make small talk, they discuss cases, but they keep their distance, they avoid each other's eyes and they exchange polite half-smiles and nods. " - Set after 03x01, the relationship between Felicity and Oliver changes dramatically. Will they go back to how they were or are they broken for good?


PROLOGUE

She pauses for a second. She lifts her eyes away from the computer screen and casually takes a look around the room, searching for nothing in particular. Just for a moment. And then her eyes settle on his. He's been watching it seems. His brows are furrowed and his face wears a look of displeasure. His blue eyes are glowing with something she can't quite put a finger on and that suddenly lights a spark of anger inside her. She had warned him not to talk, she had warned him not to start that conversation, but he didn't listen to her. He did that to himself, he screwed up.

She will get over him. She will, that she promised to herself the moment she pulled away from Oliver.

She stays on the team, even after their fallout, because she knows she's doing good there and a man can't and will not stop her from doing that. Diggle and Ray know better than to pry, so they don't. But since that night, uncomfortable silence is constantly there whenever Felicity and Oliver are in the same room. They make small talk, they discuss cases, but they keep their distance, they avoid each other's eyes and they exchange polite half-smiles and nods. But that pretty much sums up perfectly their relationship right now.

She admit to herself that every time she sees him work out right there in front of her, and recently that has been happening more often than ever before , something inside her starts to burn, but she just takes a deep breath and focuses on something else. And the fire inside her is put out. She has to admit that every time she remembers how good his lips felt on hers goose bumps start to rise, but she just huffs out a breath, and the goose bumps slowly disappear. And when she sees him flash a smile at her she closes her eyes and purses her lips into a straight line, keeping herself with every strength she has not to answer him with the same. She takes the fern she got him to her apartment, because she no longer feels home at the foundry.

She takes the job that Ray Palmer offered her, partly because Oliver doesn't like him and partly because even though she's mad at him, she still wants to help him get his family company back. She promised him that much and despite everything Felicity Smoak doesn't break her promises. She feels good at Queen Consolidated though. She likes her glass office and the way the sun shines through the French windows – down in the Foundry the only light there is the one from the luminescent lights that hang from the ceiling. She likes that her office is bright, whether as the Lair is always glum and dark and grey and cold, that her equipment is brand new or that her coffee is always good. What she doesn't like is the fact that all this makes her feel bad about him and how he's down there in the Arrowcave and Palmer is right here on the twentieth floor, sitting in the CEO's chair. She feels bad that every time she looks up and through the glass walls into his office she expects to see him, and yet she sees her new boss. She feels bad that she's working here, organizing someone else's day and not his. But she tells herself that by being closer to Ray Palmer, she'll be able to see any cracks in his polished and seemingly perfect shell. She'll be able to do something so that one day he is sitting in that chair and not Ray Palmer.

She also feels terrible that she can't just swallow past Oliver, that she still cares deeply for him, and she just can't get over him. She feels obligated, to say the least, after everything he has done for her. She's loyal to him and his cause and maybe that is her main problem. She can't just get over him when she's helping him save the city.

Felicity asks herself constantly how on Earth did Ray Palmer hire her. Isn't he suspicious she might be going to ruin him or sabotage him? Isn't he suspicious that she might be working for Oliver and helping him get his business back? Either the guy is way too full of himself or he's really dumb to figure it out.

She's spending her evenings in the Foundry and she hardly ever has time for herself anymore. When she was working for Oliver it was a completely different situation – she got to leave whenever she pleased, she covered his ass whenever he was away doing Arrow-y stuff and she was generally juggling between being his Executive Assistant and his sidekick full-time. Now she is an Executive Assistant, but there is almost nothing Arrow-related she can do during her nine-to-five work day. After work she is Arrow's sidekick again – she's below Verdant's dancefloor, making small talk, discussing cases, keeping their distance, avoiding each other's eyes and exchanging polite half-smiles and nods.

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><p><strong>This is my first Arrow fic and I hope all of you liked it. This is just the prologue and I have already started writing the first chapter, so it'll be published in a short amount of time. Thank you so much for reading the beginning of my story and I hope you'll spare a minute of your free time and write a review!<strong>


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